NL West

Now Commenting On:

Teixeira feels 'horrible' about hit on rookie

Teixeira feels 'horrible' about hit on rookie

Email

Print

By
/
|

ANAHEIM -- Mark Teixeira has yet to hear back from Angels catcher Bobby Wilson, who was forced to leave his first big league start in the third inning on Friday after a bone-jarring collision at home plate.

Wilson is on the disabled list with a concussion and left ankle injury, and Teixeira said he felt "horrible" about the play with the rookie, who was a teammate of Teixeira's briefly with the Angels in 2008.

Teixeira said he tried calling the Angels clubhouse on Friday night and also sent messages to Wilson.

The play was a topic of discussion for Teixeira in the batting cage on Saturday morning, with former big league catcher Tony Pena remarking how it was surprising that collisions didn't take place at home plate more often.

"When he played, guys got run over every week," Teixeira said. "It's a different game now. I'm not saying guys don't play as hard, but guys don't do that as much. When it does happen, it's a big deal."

Teixeira said that one major difference might be that players in high school and college are not allowed to hit the catchers, so they are less accustomed to doing it in the pro ranks.

"Ever since it became legal for me as a professional, I was taught that if a guy is covering the plate and you slide, you might hurt yourself," Teixeira said. "You just lower your shoulder and try to knock the ball loose."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi -- who once broke his nose in a collision with John Kruk -- agreed that Major League players try to avoid collisions more than they did when he was behind the plate.

"You see guys that pull up now and get tagged out, or pull up and slide gingerly," Girardi said. "That scares me to death when you do that, because you're not accustomed to sliding gingerly. That's how you catch a spike and get hurt. There are times that you're going to have to be aggressive."

And one of those times, Girardi said, was in the third inning. Wilson was in position to block the plate and Teixeira, charging toward home, had no way of knowing that Wilson wouldn't cleanly scoop Bobby Abreu's throw from right field.

"I mean, we're playing for something," Girardi said. "This isn't the family reunion softball game. Tex is not trying to hurt him. He's trying to score a run."